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Out of context: Reply #69030
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- notype14
Tonight, on my way to get fancy pillows and a gravity blanket 10 minutes before the store closed, I came upon a man who was struggling on the street corner.
Initially, he seemed to have been gathering garbage by the corner (a normal scene in the city), closer look, there were things scattered about him - he was struggling to gather it all up, and in a drunken fashion backing up into zooming 6 lane traffic. Closer inspection, he had a postal uniform on. Fuck! I thought... as if not having a postal uniform would have changed the situation. Somehow in my mind, it had. But whatever, I kept walking... thinking someone else would help him. Gotta get these blankets after all... periodically looking back to see if someone else would help this man. No_one_did. Folks glared, stared, even heard, “Yo! Is that the postman? haha!”... heard from 2 men.
I walked back to where he was standing and observed for a moment more. I went inside the deli to ask the clerk for a trash bag. He was struggling with all this shit on the sidewalk and I really wanted him to get away from the cars. Items: kids action figure toys, 2 small baby jackets & his own jacket... he kept gathering it all up in his arms and dropping 1 item, then dropping everything. I came out after 2 minutes of the clerk showing me all of the fucking bags he was willing to part with. I said “NO, give me a real trash bag.” 2 minutes later I came out, he was walking down the train step stairs. “Seems ok now”, I thought. I went back in with the bag, gave it back to the clerk - in reality, I just did NOT want to deal with this right now.
Came back out to get on my way, he seemed to had fallen, belongings scattered everywhere. Ppl just stepped over him and his things. I went back, grabbed the bag and helped him throw his things into the bag. He was unstable. I told him to sit down (twice), and just hang out on the staircase for a moment. I asked him if he needed anything. He said no. I got him two Gatorade bottles made sure it was room temp (should have gotten him water instead).
He picked his head up and said ‘thank you bro, thank you... thank you bro,’ and shook my hand. I looked into his eyes and man I could see he was struggling. The holidays are hard for so many people. Was he using? Was his drug laced with something? Pointless I guess in trying to assume what happened. Could have been a multitude of things. He did not smell like alcohol, didn’t smell like anything at all really (and I have the nose of a dog) It made me sick to my stomach though literally had a visceral reaction to it.
I did not want to call 911. But let the clerk at the booth know. He wanted a description of the man and although he got that he is male, 30’s, 5’9, in postal uniform he still wanted his nationality and was red in anger that I did not provide that information. I suggested he go over and take a look and his anger grew. At least he knew someone was unwell on the premise... as well as a transit officer who was above ground sitting in an MTA car. I ended up walking away with him still screaming at my back on the microphone. I headed down to the subway, and my train arrived in seconds. Was supposed to go out later, staying in tonight.
So happens that this week I’m heading to a class that gives a 101 on drug overdoses and what we can do to save someone's life. I don’t know anyone who uses but I think it’ll be good info to have in my arsenal.
Fuck.
Pls check in on people this holiday.
All we really want is to connect with others - it’s at the root of addiction.I really hope this guy is okay.
—
Found this really helpful tonight.“Healthy Human Connection is Key to Addiction Prevention and Treatment”
https://brickelandassociates.com…I used to listen to him a bit years ago. Still so poignant.
- well done, user.
will read againdocpoz - haz turnkey?
earth safe?
haz terminal?docpoz - where is super admin?docpoz
- tl;dr, last ¶ sums it up
check in on people this holidaynotype - Thank you. As I read this, my minds jukebox started playing https://youtu.be/BT4…shapesalad
- Lol @shape, hadn’t heard that version :)notype
- also our social systems and social workers on the street need a strong infrastructure and budget to help these people.api
- Agreednotype
- well done, user.